Because of higher degree of integration of devices, a rapid heating and cooling process is heavily used in a device manufacturing process. Time period for the process is shorter, and the maximum temperature of the process is higher. Particularly, in a 45 nm node (hp65) and after, the FLA (Flash Lamp Annealing), LSA (Laser Spike Annealing), or LTP (Laser Thermal Process) can be chosen as an annealing process.
Among these, in the FLA heat treatment, a wafer is heated to an initial temperature of 400° C. to 600° C., and only a surface of the wafer is rapidly heated to a temperature from 1100° C. to a silicon melting point by irradiating an entire surface of the wafer with a short wavelength light, for example, from a Xe lamp, and then rapidly cooled. A heat treatment time is in units (on the order) of μ second to m second.
A technique related to the FLA process is disclosed in the following documents.